The final week

What a better way to understand a culture than go to a wedding! On saturday we went to an African wedding. It was about 3 hours long. The bride and groom danced down the aisle with their party, the bridesmaids had air horns. The first half of the wedding was a church service with lots of special music, and the second half was the wedding. We left before the reception but apparently all the wedding guests dance and present their gifts, one by one.

Sunday we went back to the Massama and Loures churches, and then to an Egyptian restaurant. It was neat because Portugal has a lot of North African influence, so we continued to experience how the cultures overlapped. Our team leader had been to Egypt, so she helped explain a lot to us during the meal, where we were seated on the floor on big round pillows.

Monday was Muslim day. We spent the day in Lisbon observing Muslims, and that evening we went to a Mosque where we got to watch the prayer time, get a tour, and hear the call to prayer. It was a really unique time and a great experience for me. Learning about Islam, from Muslims is the way to go. I feel like I need to learn more about different religions, mostly so I can pray for them more specifically.

Today, we went to Fatima, (who happens to be one of Muhammad's daughters). Fatima is a pilgramage for Catholics. We got the chance to observe and pray and just understand Catholicism a little better. After that, we went and checked out a few different cathedrals a bit North of Lisbon. It's been a good few days of observing more of the culture and the religious differences here.

Tomorrow we spend the day debriefing with our missionary hosts, Otto, Marcos, and their wives. Thursday is the big day of packing everything up, cleaning our house, and going out with the larger missionary team we've worked with. We fly back to Montreal all day Friday (the 15th), we get to the airport at 7:30 am our time, which is about 1:30 a.m friday morning in Kansas. I leave Montreal on the 21st, and am excited to see all you of and hear how God has worked in your lives during the past few weeks as he's worked in mine.